Loop recording is the process of recording audio or video continuously onto an appropriate recording media by having the recording process, once it reaches the end of the media, restart from the beginning of the media. Once the recording process continues to record at the beginning, the system records over the previously recorded material and replaces it with the new content.
Looping systems include large disk drive capacities in order to enable the capture of many hours (or days) of video and/or audio from one or more devices. Typically, these looping systems are designed for permanent installations such as for performance stadiums or around a large operational facility. However, these existing systems are not suitable for portable consumer applications due to their relatively large size, high power requirements, attendant wiring, large memory requirements, and relatively high cost. Looping systems that are available on small cameras automatically being to overwrite, from the beginning of the memory, recordings if the memory is full or if a request to save is not designated by the user while the loop recording is in progress. These systems fail to appropriately use memory capacity and are difficult to remotely operate, share and/or collaborate with other interested viewers of the event/recordings, and fail to support multiple users of the video recorder.